1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stirrups for horseback riders, and more particularly to a pad that can be mounted to a stirrup to reduce foot slippage and dampen shock transmitted to a rider by a horse in motion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Horseback riders experience a bouncing sensation, often unsettling, caused by the horse in motion. Bouncing in the saddle can produce bodily aches and pains in inexperienced riders and even experienced equestrians feel the effects of a strenuous ride. Riders of the "English" style, particularly riders who compete with show jumpers, know the concussion and impact to the body that ensues when a horse touches ground at the completion of a jump. Tremendous power is exerted by a horse in motion, particularly during hard galloping or in jumping over high obstacles and this can exert high G forces which initially are absorbed by the horse's legs, then travel on from there and dissipate throughout the horse's body. It is axiomatic that the horseback rider will also be affected by the impact created when hooves hit or leave the ground.
While a good amount of shock is absorbed by the rider's knees and legs, the force transmitted to the rider is often so strong that a good proportion of the shock is not dissipated but continues up through the rider's body, helping to create a loss of rider control and safety. To address these problems attention naturally focuses on the first point of impact to rider's body, namely the rider's feet in the stirrups. Accordingly, the prior art reveals a few developments that attempt to addresses this problem. Thus in U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,339 to Roberts, there is shown a stirrup-mounted cushion assembly that essentially is comprised of a plurality of interiorly mounted springs acting against a tubular sleeve, all of which are encased within a rectangular cage. The saddle strap engages the cage in such manner that shock associated with horseback riding is absorbed in the assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,081 shows a shock-absorbing stirrup that features an elastomeric, energy absorbing ring mounted in the upper part of stirrup-shaped rigid structure. It is noted that a closed-cell rubber pad is glued to the lower part of the stirrup structure for the purpose of adding comfort to the rider's feet, and not as a shock absorbing device. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,538 shows a safety stirrup pad of a durable plastic or relatively hard rubber that has an inclined foot rest designed to support a foot at an upwardly inclined orientation.
In spite of advantages that may be brought to the horseback rider by the prior art examples, they all have their apparent limitations, and the need remains for improvements.